Nepra approves Rs 3.30 per unit raise in electricity price

Islamabad – The New Year is unlikely to bring any relief to power consumers as Nepra has approved an increase of 24.72 per cent or Rs 3.30 per unit in the average base electricity price of X-WAPDA Distribution Companies (XWDISCOS) for FY 2018-19 and FY 2019-20.

The decision if approved by the federal government will jack up the base electricity price from the existing Rs 13.35 per unit to Rs 16.65 per unit, official source said. The decision of the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) has been conveyed to the Ministry of Energy (Power Division) and they will make the final decision regarding the increase,official source told The Nation here Thursday. 

The increase will have an impact of around Rs 275 billion on power consumers, the source said.  The final decision will be allowed by the Power Division after the approval of ECC and Cabinet.

Following the amendment in Nepra act, all the 10 discos had separately filed their petitions for tariff increase in their existing tariffs for the FY 2018-19 and FY 2019-20. The tariff increase sought by Discos range between 10 to 27 per cent from their existing tariffs.

24.72 per cent increase likely

The Quetta Electric Supply Company has sought about 26pc increase in its average sale price. The Peshawar Electric Supply Company had demanded an increase of 24pc in its average tariff. Sukkur Electric Power Company has sought an increase of about 10pc in its average sale rate. The Multan Electric Power Company has sought an increase of almost 25 c in its net average tariff.The Hyderabad Electric Supply Company sought about 20pc reduction in its net average rate. Nepra had conducted hearing on all the petitions and had reserved the judgment.

It is worth to mention here that under the amended Nepra act (Regulation of Generation, Transmission and Distribution of Electric Power Act), the power companies were required to file separate tariff petitions for power supply and distribution. Section 23E of the Nepra act now requires that “power supply” licences would perform the function of the sale of electric power and “distribution” licencees under Section 20 would be limited to ownership, operation, management and control of distributing facilities for the movement of delivery to consumers. As such, all non-sale elements of distribution segment (installation, investment, operation maintenance and controlling of distribution network) now form part of the distribution licence. On the other hand, all sale-related activities earlier being performed by distribution licencees (metering, billing and collection, etc) now form part of supply licence. 

Since there is uniform base tariff for all the Discos therefore, instead of separate increase for each disco, NEPRA has approved an average increase of 24.72 percent or Rs 3.30 per unit for all the 10 Discos.